From Facebook Comments to E-Commerce Transactions with Soldsie

Mar 11, 2013

Website Magazine Staff

Social commerce has been dragging its virtual feet.

Sure, American Express and Twitter certainly have super high aspirations in this regard, but all those F-commerce solutions so highly touted a few years ago just aren't capturing the attention of Internet retailers like they used to (or maybe should).

The reason could be obvious - that social network users aren't in a buying frame of mind when they spend time there. Or it could be something else - like that existing solutions just don't make it easy enough for consumers to actually purchase on the network from the retail brands they follow. That seems to be the opportunity recognized by Soldsie, a startup launched last year that could be one to watch in the future for retailers.

Soldsie is rather unique in that it is a platform and application that lets shoppers buy something directly from a brand's Facebook page by simply typing in the word "sold" into the comments section. Once they do that, Soldsie then sends an email invoice of their order and they can checkout. Glam Grab Accessory Auction's Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/glamgrab) is using Soldsie now. In a March 3rd update, it looks like the company generated two "sold" responses from its 20,000-plus following on a post which garned over 350 likes and 12 shares - not bad, not bad at all.

The Soldsie service is free for the first $700 in transactions; but merchants will need to pay a three percent transaction fee after that. Soldsie apparently just received a cool $1 million in seed funding from institutional investors including 500 Startups, e.ventures, and FundersClub, so at least the venture capitalists see the value.